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Fantomex is a thief, a result of the Weapon Plus Program's experimentation with technological-human hybrids (Weapon XIII). He was born and was artificially "evolved" in The World, a man-made environment designed to create super-soldiers using Sentinel technology. Though his true identity is unknown, he has on at least one occasion gone by the name "Jean-Phillipe", and his experiment designation at The World facility was "Charlie Cluster-7." In terms of nationality, it was first assumed that Fantomex was French. Fantomex has explained, however, that he is not in fact French (further adding to his mysterious origin), but rather speaks with a French accent because he finds that it annoys and distracts others.

Fantomex sought a safe haven at the X-Corporation in Paris while fleeing from authorities. He claimed to be a mutant thief with the ill-defined power of misdirection. Bleeding profusely from bullet wounds, he asked for asylum, which Professor X granted him. Fantomex explained to Professor X and Jean Grey that he was being hunted because he was one of the most wanted thieves in Europe. Neither Professor X nor Jean Grey were able to use their telepathy to verify his claims due to his ceramic mask, a device that blocked their mental probes.

However, they agreed to aid him, and after escaping the soldiers who surrounded the building, Fantomex used E.V.A. to take Professor X and Jean Grey to his "home" in France. While there, he introduced them to his "mother" and continued to describe his success as a thief. In fact, he told the two that he had stolen sensitive information about the Weapon Plus project while in the Chunnel, and offered to sell it to Professor Xavier for one billion dollars. After submitting his proposal, he put himself in a light hypnotic trance and removed the bullets that riddled his body. Finished, he asked Professor X and Jean Grey to accompany him back to the Chunnel in an effort to destroy Weapon XII. The three left in E.V.A., leaving the house and elderly woman behind. However, both the house and the woman turned out to be a highly elaborate ruse designed by Fantomex to hide his true origin.

Fantomex then led Professor Xavier and Jean Grey to the Chunnel disaster. Packed full of people and animals that Weapon XII had turned into mindless slaves, confusion ran rampant. Knowing that those who had fallen prey to Weapon XII's influence were lost, Fantomex killed Darkstar and any others who were mentally connected to the creature. After Fantomex destroyed Weapon XII by using a remote detonator, it was noticed that there were two empty Weapon Plus transport tubes in the Chunnel: one that had held the violent Weapon XII and another that held something called Weapon XIII.

After the battle, Fantomex's ceramic mask slipped a bit and Jean Grey used her telepathy to deduce his true identity: Fantomex was actually Weapon XIII and had also been in transit in the Chunnel. It was during the accident in the Chunnel that he had escaped and was subsequently chased to the X-Corporation building. He confessed to Jean Grey that he was not the master thief that he had claimed, but was now set out to earn that reputation. He assured Jean Grey that he refused to be anyone's soldier, and as a result Jean Grey allowed Fantomex to disappear into the Chunnel before the authorities arrived.

Fantomex later traveled to Afghanistan in an attempt to steal a list of the world's richest mutant slaver traders, the names on which he intended to blackmail. There he encountered an unconscious mutant known as Dust, a former captive who had unwittingly killed her captors by turning into a deadly sandstorm. Upon his exit, he encountered Wolverine, leaving Dust in his care.

Soon after, Fantomex contacted Wolverine and offered him information about his mysterious past if he helped Fantomex destroy Ultimaton, also known as Weapon XV, a deadly product of the Weapon Plus program. Fantomex, Wolverine, and the X-Men's Cyclops traveled to The World, an artificial, time-altering environment designed by the Weapon Plus program to quickly develop and evolve new generations of super-soldiers. The team was defeated by Ultimaton, who escaped by breaking through the barriers of The World and flying to the Weapon Plus space station.

The team pursued their target in E.V.A., Fantomex's biological spacecraft, and upon arriving at the space station Fantomex kept his word by showing Wolverine the complete Weapon Plus database. Shocked at learning the terrible details of his past (including his slaughtering of the entire population of Roanoke while under the influence of the Weapon Plus Program), Wolverine initiated the self-destruct sequence for the space station before catching and ultimately killing Ultimaton, who was also wondering about his condition. Fantomex and Cyclops escaped the explosion in one of the station's shuttles.

Returning to Earth to find the X-Men scattered and Manhattan under siege by a mutant impersonating their arch-foe Magneto, Cyclops recruited Fantomex, E.V.A., and a group of Xavier Institute students into an ad-hoc X-Men team to oppose the villain. Fantomex led the assault, cutting a path through the faux-Magneto’s Brotherhood and liberating Xavier, precipitating the villain’s downfall.

Resuming his crusade against Weapon Plus, Fantomex found the grave of the Program’s director, John Sublime, but found it empty, except for a slip of paper bearing the word “Roanoke.” He located the secret facility of the splinter program Weapon X and found it abandoned except for Weapon X’s Agent Zero. After a brief scuffle with no clear victor, the pair reluctantly joined forces and traveled to the site of Roanoke, a town whose inhabitants were slaughtered after Weapon X unleashed a brainwashed Wolverine on them years earlier. There, they encountered Sublime but were opposed by his U-Men and forced to flee against overwhelming odds. Believed to still be under the Program’s control, Fantomex was left for dead.

Later, Fantomex was contacted by the diminutive mutant Shortpack who sought his help in assassinating mutant arms dealer Steinbeck in revenge for his killing of an agent under Shortpack’s care. Fantomex refused, not wanting to become responsible for allowing the good-natured Shortpack to become a killer. Shortpack was captured by Steinbeck soon after, and whilst investigating his disappearance the shapechanging mutant Mystique, who was working for both Xavier and Steinbeck’s ally Shepard, learned of his meeting with Fantomex. Though despising him after a past encounter in Madagascar, Mystique found Fantomex in Monte Carlo, once again operating under the pretense he was a mutant thief, and learned of Shortpack’s plan. As she left to rescue him,

Fantomex followed and uncovered her intent to assassinate Xavier. In exchange for his silence, Fantomex bade Mystique perform a heist for him. After she returned with the goods, Mystique infected both Fantomex and E.V.A. with a techno-organic virus, seemingly killing them both to keep her plan secret. However, it was all a ruse as Mystique knew she was being monitored by Shepard. Fantomex later resurfaced and helped Mystique capture Shepard, giving her access to Steinbeck whom she defeated.

Powers and Abilities

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Powers

Fantomex is an artificially-evolved human. Fantomex is an engineered mutate with multiple 'brains' for independent parallel processing, 'nano-active blood'. Fantomex's primary nervous system is actually a detachable techno-organism called E.V.A.

E.V.A.: an autonomous entity manifesting his primary nervous system externally, with retractable landing legs, hovering and propulsion capabilities, morphing doorways, passenger room, and a machine consciousness. He can see through E.V.A.'s point of view and can take control of her movement. However, this requires extreme concentrations on the part of Fantomex. Moreover, E.V.A can fly "herself" and can generate bio-electric charges to be used as weapons. Fantomex is both telepathically and symbiotically linked to E.V.A. As a result, whenever E.V.A. is traumatized or injured, Fantomex experiences the same pain.

Superhuman Durability: While separated, Fantomex feels no pain and seems able to ignore most injuries.

Misdirection: ability to 'misdirect' another person, including the use of illusions. Together, their combined consciousnesses can create extremely convincing illusions. It seems even powerful telepaths cannot truly tell if he is lying or not.

Secondary Nervous System: Fantomex possesses a secondary, internal nervous system that he can activate to prevent this, but its functions are limited, allowing him to see only in black & white.

Healing Trance: can place himself in a trance-like state to recover from injuries. In this state he has been known to forcibly expel bullets and recover faster while placed in water.

Superhuman Agility

Enhanced Strength

Abilities

Fantomex is a skilled marksman and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant. He can also read the body language of others with unparalleled precision. This, coupled with his superhuman abilities, makes him a master of misdirection. Fantomex is also able to place himself in a state of light auto-hypnosis to perform critical tasks, such as self surgery.

Strength level

Peak human

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Fantomex's ceramic armor has goggles (presumably for night vision) and provides some protection. There may be other devices in it. His mask incorporates telepathy-blocking ceramics.

Transportation

E.V.A.

Weapons

Handguns, sniper rifle. He carries special "mutant-killing" ceramic bullets. They were designed by Sir James Braddock (the father of the Captain Britain) and are unique because the bullets themselves appear to have distorted faces.

Notes

Fantomex is apparently designed after the French pulp fiction hero Fantomas, and an Italian comic character, Diabolic.

He is also thought to be a parody of characters with mysterious pasts.